Plainfield council reeling from $250,000 bill for senior center

PLAINFIELD -- Plainfield made a deal to give a developer a plot of land for $1 in exchange for him to build them a senior center.

Now, more than a year after the building opened, the city has been handed construction bills for more than a quarter-million dollars, and council members are stunned by costs they said they never expected.

As they grappled with the cost Tuesday night, some wondered who had been monitoring the project for the city.

“The horse is out of the gate, and now we have to close the barn,” said Councilman Adrian Mapp.

The Monarch, a 63-unit condominium building built by Hillside-based developer P&F Management, opened last May at 400 E. Front St. The bottom floor of the four-story building contains the senior center and a veterans’ center.

Now Dornoch Plainfield LLC, a company run by P&F’s CEO Glen Fishman, is seeking $257,000 in construction payments for additional improvements to the center.

The council is also being asked to allocate an additional $30,000 to pay $2,750 a month in condo association fees for the use of the center.

City Administrator Bibi Taylor said the work was commissioned to enhance the electrical wiring and other interior improvements to accommodate certain senior activities like sewing classes.

“Those things could be done and the funds were available, and the decision was made to enhance the value of the asset,” she said. “In exchange for the $1 that we’re paying for the facility, the city receives a property that has a value I believe in excess of $2 million.”

Councilman Cory Storch said an additional cost for building improvements had been brought up at the time the council authorized the agreement in 2007.

“It’s more than I assumed it would be,” he said. “And I do want to know who actually looked at the itemized bill for this, who approved it. It certainly hasn’t come to the council.”

Council President Annie McWilliams, who joined the council in 2008, said she thought the deal with P&F Management was long finished.

“This is brand new on my radar,” she said. “A quarter of a million dollars is a lot of money to be in my opinion unexpectedly spending at this point in the year after the layoff plan.”

The payments came under fire from members of the public like Harold Yood, who remembered the original agreement.

“I did not think that we would have to be paying the construction fee, which is almost the equivalent of buying a condo,” he told the board.

Former mayoral candidate Jim Pivnichny was also critical.

“Why on earth would the city accept a senior citizens center that was empty when the deal was to get a senior citizens center for free in exchange for the $1 we allow the developer to pay for the land?” he said. “I would recommend a close scrutiny of this resolution before I’d consider passing it.”

The council tabled the resolution and will bring it to a vote at next month’s meeting.